17 - 23 august

What a great week, the weather was super great, we had a great festival just around the corner, and the kids started school again J

 

On Monday the kids went to school again after the summer break. They had a good start, everything went fine. On Tuesday Mean baked pancakes all herself for the very first time. She wanted me to take a picture alike Spongebob. The Wednesday photo is of Mean jumping in the canal next to our house. She loves to swim. On Thursday grandma came again, and we played a game called Pinguin Panic in the evening together. On Friday I went to the Chinese doctor with my mother again. Saturday was the start of Delfsail, a great event in Delfzijl, our community. We watched all the big ships sailing in the harbor, and went to a big free pop concert with Mean. She loved it! On Sunday Rudy had an obedience exam with Kyona, our almost 1 year old “puppy”. Everything went very well, he passed it. In the afternoon we went to Delfsail again, and had a great afternoon with nice food, some attractions and of course the great views of the ships.

Delfsail 22 august

I had to share these photos with you. This weekend for four days it is Delfsail (www.delfsail.nl) in our community. We live about 7 km’s from the town of Delfzijl, where the big harbor is. We went by bike to the pier which is the entrance to the harbor this morning (it’s only about 2 km’s from our home) and we sat there to watch the big tallships come in for the festival. The weather was great, and we were there for about 2 hours. I took food and drinks with me, and of course my camera, and took some great shots. The atmosphere there was great, all wonderful people loving the scenery!

In the evening we had a big free popconcert of Marco Borsato, the biggest male singer in the Netherlands, in the harbor of Delfzijl. He sings mainly in Dutch, and Mean loves a few of his songs. So she went with us. We had a super great time there, the concert was wonderful, the atmosphere was wonderful, and afterwards we saw the fireworks through the tallships. The weather was nice, no wind, fine temperature, it couldn’t have been better.

Today we’re having an obedience exam at our dog training school, and afterwards we’ll go to the festival again. Hope you like the photos!

10 - 16 august

This was a real summer week. The weather was very nice, lots of sun and the children could play outside most of the time in their last week of vacation.

 

The trees are carrying lots of fruit. The walnuts are really nice this year. Our black German Shepherd Felyce is really fond of water, and loves to swim. Mean had a phone conversation, her first real conversation I mean, on Monday with a school friend. Very funny to overhear! My Cairn Terrier Bully has very long hair, he is going to the dog groomer next week. He didn’t see much through his hair, so I made him a pigtail on top of his head so he could see better. He didn’t like it at first, but got used to it very soon, and seemed to enjoy it! On Saturday Rudy had his birthday and we celebrated our 24^th wedding day. We had a great day, with an afternoon of family water fun and simply enjoying the nice weather and each other’s company. We had a BBQ and loved it. On Sunday the weather was great also, and we spent the afternoon with my sister, her boyfriend and their youngest daughter. We then went to the Chinese restaurant and had a great dinner. Loved this week!

3-9 august

A week with wonderful summer weather. Only negative thing: I had to go to work again, so spent four days inside. But the kids still have vacation here. On Monday I took a lot of photos of the cats and the kids. They where having so much fun outside in the evening. Mean can swim in the pool all day, and evening. The photo of Wednesday is of Shen and his Nintendo DS. He is almost glued to it. Thursday I visited a newborn baby. He was born on Saturday, and he and his mother came home on Wednesday. He was so pretty! Wish you a long and happy life, Raphael Julien! On Friday was my day off. It was very hot, so I did the groceries very early. In the afternoon I spent some time in the pool, and for dinner Mean made the preparation for pancakes. On Saturday I had a meeting with the editorial people of the Cairn Terrier club (I’m a member too) and afterwards we took this photo of the group. Sunday was a very busy day, the afternoon was cleaning time for the dog training school canteen. Tomorrow the training season starts again, and everything is ready for the season!

27 july - 2 august

I still have vacation from work this week. We spent it at home. On Tuesday I went to the Lifelines health check. In 8 weeks I’ll get the results. Wednesday my niece Yvonne and her boyfriend Stefan arrived. They stayed at my mother’s house (Yvonne is very asthmatic and we have 5 dogs and 2 cats) but we BBQ’d 2 times, went to the Chinese to dine with my mother and father, and we went to the playground with Mean and Shen. We had a great time!

21-26 july

Our second week of vacation. We where near Paris (France). We visited a middle aged town (Provins) which was great, but not so great was that our navigation system was stolen from our car there (very strange: they left the children's DVD system in the car). There was no damage to our car, we can't understand how they did it (it's not possible to open the car door through the handle inside when it's locked, and they also left the thing that is attaching the system to the front window which makes no sense). Well, we didn't let this spoil our vacation. We went to Paris for a day, showed the kids the Eiffel Tower, Notre Dame, Arc de Triomphe, Sacre-Coeur, and sat on the treps of Montmartre. We also had dinner in a Cambodian restaurant, which was great for Mean. And the last three days of our holiday where spent in Disneyland Paris! We had a great time, allthough our feet where mess each evening. On sunday we went home at around half past two, and arrived at nine thirty in our home. We had a great time!

13-19 july

Holiday week! Fun in the sun in southern France. We had a very nice time. We visited the mediterranean sea two times, had a blast in the pool on the campsite. On saturday we left for another week of holiday near Paris. The kids loved to play there with other Dutch kids.